In this tutorial we're going to create a Slack bot using FlowXO and Zapier to automate stand ups and save the responses.

Here's what you'll need.

1 x FlowXO Account (free)

1 x Zapier Account (free)

1 x Google Sheet (free)

First head to Zapier and click 'Make a Zap'.

Select 'Schedule by Zapier' and 'Every day' as the 'Trigger'.

Set the timings.

Test and continue.

Next add, Slack as the next app with 'Send Channel Message' as the action.

Configure your Slack account + channel that you want the message to be sent to.

In the 'Message Text' create a message that prompts people to message the bot with 'me' or 'here'. "Morning, stand up time. Who's here and working?" is a good example.

Give the bot a name then press continue.

Set the Zap live and you're ready for the next step.

Head to www.flowxo.com and login.

Click 'Bots' from the menu and click 'New'.

Select Slack and click the 'detailed instructions' link.

Follow these step by step to connect your FlowXO Bot to Slack.

Once done, give your Bot a name and move on to the next step.

In this step we're going to setup our FlowXO bot. Head back to FlowXO and you should see that you have a MakerpadBot. Head to the left hand menu and click Flows. Click New in the top right hand corner and select "Blank Flow'. Next as a Trigger we're going to select, 'New Message'. Click Connect to a specific bot and select the bot we created.

You should now see a screen titled New Message. Now we're going to want to set the bot to listen for two keywords, 'me' and 'here'. Into the 'Words or Phrases' box enter 'me' on one line and 'here' on the other. Leave the rest of the settings as is and click 'Next'.

Ignore filters for this and press 'Save' on the next screen.

Now you should be looking at the main Flows screen with 'New Message' at the top. Click 'Click here to add an action'. As we are going to be asking questions during our stand up, select, 'Ask a question'. Question type should be 'Text' and in the 'Question' field, type 'What did you do yesterday' (add an emoji if you like). Press 'Next' then 'Save'.

Now add two more Questions containing 'What will you do today?' and 'Any obstacles?'.

Tip - It may be a good idea now to name each question in the Flow.

Now test the Flow works by turning it on by pressing the toggle in the top right of your screen. Press to 'On'. Switch to slack and send a direct message to 'MakerpadBot' with either the word 'me' or 'here' to trigger the bot. If all works as planned we're done and ready to move onto the next step.

Now that we have our bot set up, let's add some personalisation. Open the Flow and in the first question click the 'Edit' button. In the question text field box, add 'Morning' followed by a variable. This is found by clicking the fish looking icon in the top right corner of that box. Scroll down and find 'User First Name'. Press 'Next' then 'Save'.

Feel free to test it again in Slack to check it pulls in the first name.

That's it for this step :)

In this step we're going to save our answers to a Google Sheet so we are able to recall them later or just review them as the team leader. Add another action to the bottom of your Flow, scroll down and select 'More Services'. Find Google Sheets and select it. Before moving on create a new Google Sheet and give it a name and the following column headers.

• Date
• Name
• Did yesterday?
• Doing today?
• Any obstacles?

Once done head back to FlowXO and connect this Google Sheet to your action. Pick the correct spreadsheet and worksheet then by selecting the 'FlowXO Variable Icon' map the variables across to match up with the columns from our Google Sheet.

Once done, press 'Next' then 'Save'.

Now head to Slack and test.

For the final step, head back to Flow and 'Add a new action' called 'Make HTTP Request".

Select 'Post' as the Method and 'JSON' as the Content Type.

Now head back to Zapier.

Make a new Zap with 'Webhooks by Zapier' as the first app.

Select 'Catch Hook' as the Trigger then press 'Continue'.

Next Copy the 'Custom Webhook URL' and paste it into the 'Request URL' field on FlowXO.

Back to Zapier, press Test & Continue.

Now in Slack, test the bot again to see if the info gets passed through to the new Zap.

Next add another step to your Zap. Search for "Digest by Zapier'. Choose 'Append Entry and Schedule Digest' from the 'Choose Action Event' menu.

Press continue and enter a 'Title', add in the 'Question' and 'Answer' variables from the Webhook into the 'Entry' field.

Next set the 'Frequency' to 'Daily' and either choose a 'Time' to send or select 'Threshold' to send the digest when a certain number of entries is met.

Finally, add Slack as the final step to the Zap.

Connect Slack, pick a Channel then in the 'Message Text' add in the 'Current Digest' variable from the 'Digest by Webflow' step.

Name the bot, then you're done.

Set the Zap live and start running your stand ups automatically.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and if you have any questions please reach out in the Makerpad Slack group on @tomosman .